The Hon’ble Delhi court on 09th March 2021 extended the interim protection from arrest to Shantanu Muluk and Nikita Jacob till 15th March 2021 in the ‘toolkit’ document case related to the farmer’s protest.
The Hon’ble Additional Sessions Judge in the Patiala House court also directed the Delhi Police not to take intimidating action against both the accused till 15th March 2021, the next date fixed for hearing.
In the meantime, the Delhi Police filed the reply on the anticipatory bail petition of Muluk and Jacob. During the hearing, Muluk of the accused sought an adjournment in the present case on the ground that she needs time to go through the document filed by the Delhi Police. Whereas Jacob, Rebecca John, and Grover further requested the Hon’ble court to extend the interim protection from arrest.
Needful to mention that Muluk and Jacob are having interim protection granted by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court.
A Non-Bailable Warrant was issued against Muluk by a Hon’ble Delhi court and thereafter, he had moved to the Hon’ble Bombay High Court for transit bail and the same was granted to him.
After being granted the transit bail, Muluk upon receiving summons on the same day had reached Delhi and joined the investigation. He was said to be cooperative with the investigation team and has handed over all his devices, namely, laptop, iPad, and phone to the police, although no seizure memo was prepared, Muluk stated in his bail plea.
Muluk also submitted that he would abide by every condition imposed by the court. The bail application also stated that Muluk is not a political person and he has no religious or political goals apart from exhibiting sympathy for farmers (/topic/farmers). The applicant believes in peaceful protest and condemns any violence whatsoever. He has been concerned about the environment and that is the only reason he has been working with the extinction rebellion movement, stated his bail application.
The applicant got to know that some ‘toolkit’ has been shared with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg only after he was informed about the same by others, the bail petition said.
Muluk is a suspect in the ongoing ‘toolkit’ document case related to the farmer’s protest. Muluk had joined co-accused 21-year-old “climate activist” Disha Ravi at the Delhi Police Cyber Cell office in the national capital for further probe in the ongoing case.
The Hon’ble Delhi court had earlier granted bail to Disha Ravi The 21-year-old activist was arrested from Bengaluru in connection with the formulation and dissemination of the ‘toolkit’ document, in the ongoing farmers protest. She was named to be one of the editors of the ‘toolkit’ document.
On February 3, Thunberg had shared this ‘toolkit’ in a tweet, which she later deleted. She had also extended support to the protest by farmer unions on the borders of Delhi against the new farm laws.
Farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The implementation of the three laws was, in January, put on hold by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
